Global Initiative to Reward Companies for Using Co-Creation

A coalition of partners enabling co-creation have announced the launch of the 2012 Co-Creation Awards, an initiative that intends to reward successful implementation of co-creation in innovation and marketing projects both in the private and public sectors. Co-creation cases can be submitted by the organizations that initiated them, and the submission period closes on October 1st 2012. The winners will be announced on November 8th in a ceremony which will be live streamed globally.

This award is organized by the Co-Creation Association in collaboration with the Co-Creation Forum, Capgemini and eYeka, which are all actors in the field of co-creation. The objective of the Co-Creation Awards is to benchmark excellence in co-creation for both businesses and non-profit organizations across the world. The awards will celebrate successful implementation of co-creation for product, service or process innovation as well as marketing & communication. Co-creation has become increasingly popular with brands and organizations looking to source fresh ideas for developing new products or creating more engaging and authentic communication.

Co-creation is defined as the act of involving customers and/or stakeholders in the innovation, marketing or value creation processes of private or public organizations.

Companies or organizations that are the prime beneficiary of co-creation projects’ results can submit cases at the submissions page. Partners of the prime beneficiary (such as consultancies, experts, suppliers or project participants) can also submit cases, but only with the expressed consent of the client organization. Only case studies from 2012, 2011 or older if they are active case studies not submitted earlier, are eligible.

Co-creation cases should fall into one of four categories:

Best use of co-creation for innovation by for-profit organizations: involving clients and/or consumers in the innovation process of a company. This can take various forms such as contests for idea generation, prize competitions, innovation platforms, online innovation communities…

Best use of co-creation for marketing by for-profit organizations: involving clients and/or consumers in the marketing of a product or brand. This can include advertising contests, brand communities, collaborative marketing campaigns…

Best use of co-creation for innovation by non-for-profit organizations: involving citizen and/or users to co-create new products and services with governments or NGOs. This can include idea contests, engagement platforms, online innovation communities…

Best use of co-creation for marketing by non-for-profit organizations: involving citizen and/or users to increase public awareness around a cause or a public project. This can include advertising contests, online communities, participative marketing campaigns…

The submissions will be reviewed by an expert panel of the Co-Creation Awards organizing committee. An international jury comprising of thought-leaders in co-creation and marketing will be unveiled at a later date. If the co-creation case fits the definition of co-creation shown above and falls into one of the four categories, it will be publicly featured as a Nominee of the 2012 Co-Creation Awards.

As an official nominee, each case will be judged based on 7 criteria: investment or the organization, originality of the case, reach of the initiative, interactivity with the audience, stakeholder satisfaction, added value for the stakeholders, and notoriety of the co-creation initiative.

The 2012 Co-Creation Award winners will be announced on the 8th of November during a live, streamed event hosted by Capgemini in the Netherlands. Both nominees and winners of the 2012 Co-Creation Awards will have the right to use the mentions “Co-Creation Award Nominee 2012” and “Co-Creation Award Winner 2012” in their marketing campaigns. If you’re a brand manager, a project manager or if you know of co-creation initiative worth being rewarded…

Yannig Roth graduated in marketing and is currently Research Fellow at eYeka and PhD student at University Paris1 Panthéon-Sorbonne in Paris (France). His main research interests are creative crowdsourcing and community co-creation. Yannig regularly blogs at http://yannigroth.wordpress.com